How farmers learn: improving sustainable agriculture education

How farmers learn: improving sustainable agriculture education

Summary

Research findings from focus groups and surveys consisting of 115 participants including 94 farmers and 21 Extension agents and specialists indicate that farmers prefer to learn through:
•Hands-on (99%)
•Demonstration (96%)
•Farm visit (94%)
•Field day (94%)
•Discussion (87%)
•One-on-one (85%)

Research findings from these same focus groups and surveys indicate that farmers do not prefer to learn through:
•Games (80%)
•Comics (78%)
•Role-playing (77%)
•Radio (63%)

Research findings from these same focus groups and surveys indicate that Extension agents/specialists perceive that farmers learn through:
•Farm visit (100%)
•One-on-one (100%)
•Demonstration (95%)
•Field day (90%)
•On-farm test (90%)

Research findings from these same focus groups and surveys indicate that Extension agents/specialists perceive that farmers do not learn through:
•Comics (80%)
•Role-playing (80%)
•Games (75%)

Additional research findings indicate that farmers prefer:
•Relevant and localized teaching
•Connect farmers and experts
•Connected, trusted, and knowledgeable agents and specialists
•Agents/specialists who honor farmers’ values
•Agents/specialists who care about and respect farmers’ goals and lifestyle

Agricultural education’s role in learning is during the farmer’s “gathering information” stage. Extension agents and specialists need to provide comprehensive educational programs with sequential information delivered through a variety of teaching methods. Farmers value Extension educators who get to know them, facilitate farmer-to-farmer networks, work with agricultural industries, and have experience in their area of agriculture.

Objectives/Performance Targets

1. Farmers, Extension agents and specialists, and project staff, as a group, design and carry out an assessment of how Louisiana and Tennessee farmers prefer to learn.

2. Farmers, Extension agents and specialists, and project staff assess Extension agent perceptions of how farmers in Louisiana and Tennessee prefer to learn and determine how these perceptions are similar to or different from farmer’s stated learning preferences.

3. Farmers, Extension agents and specialists, and project staff recommend how Extension educators should change or reinforce teaching methods and educational experiences to align with farmers learning preferences for more successful educational programming.

4. Farmers, Extension agents and specialists, and project staff will analyze and interpret the data with stakeholders, write summary reports, and begin to disseminate findings to farmers, Extension agents and specialists, and secondary audiences.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Farmers, Extension agents and specialists, and project staff helped guide the project towards obtaining the second year goals.

• Focus Groups
– Ten focus groups and surveys with farmers and Extension agents and specialists were conducted in Louisiana and Tennessee. Extension agents and specialists were exposed to farmer’s thoughts about sustainable agriculture.
– Alternative agriculture producers also had an opportunity to network with and share production knowledge with each other
– Women producers had an opportunity to network and share program needs

Data Analysis
– transcripts of the ten focus groups were created and analyzed to identify common and divergent themes
– the steering committee was involved in collecting, analyzing, and disseminating data
– farmers were given a learning methods survey to determine how they prefer or do not prefer to learn, data was collected and analyzed
– perceptions of Extension agents and specialists on how farmers prefer to learn were collected and analyzed through a learning methods survey and focus groups
– the steering committee of project staff, farmers and Extension agents and specialists learned more about the perceptions of alternative agriculture farmers through data analysis

Dissemination of Findings
– workshops were conducted to share findings with farmers and Extension agents and specialists in Virginia at a state-wide dairy agents workshop, a Virginia State University ANR specialist and staff workshop, and the Virginia Biological Farmer’s conference workshop
– a poster of the findings was presented at the Virginia Tech Teaching and Learning Conference and the Virginia Biological Farmers Conference
– a conceptual model of the findings was expanded to share with farmers and educators
– a Virginia Farm Bureau representative, and young farmer from the steering committee
helped analyze the Virginia young farmer’s focus group data and discussed ways to use the findings
– an eXtension wiki page was stared to share findings and project work
– a Scholar site was set up for project staff and steering committee members in each state to access transcripts, survey data, and other documents
– an article on the findings from year one were published in the Virginia Tech College of Ag and Life Sciences annual accomplishment magazine
– a face sheet was created on farmer’s online learning from the Tennessee findings
– a literature review was conducted and a two year long report for future use in developing journal articles and other publications
– a powerpoint for VA findings was created and used throughout Virginia

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

– Based on the success of the Virginia model, a list of first year lessons were created and steering committees in two other southern states were developed to guide year two project work

– More relevant educational experiences for farmers can now be developed by Extension faculty based on the results from this project. Agents and specialists in Virginia have already commented that the findings from this research are guiding their work.

– The Virginia Farm Bureau gained information on how young farmers prefer to learn to help them with future planning

– Farmers had fewer barriers to contribute to this research project due to a stipend provided to cover time away from their business

– Perceptions of Extension’s effectiveness and farmer learning preferences from this project will shape programs, agent and specialist competency, and other aspects of agriculture education to better meet the needs of farmers

– The Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Program Leader in Virginia has shared the Virginia findings in meetings with partners and stakeholders across Virginia

– Workshops for Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia Extension agents and specialists will be conducted to inform this project for year three.

Overall, this research should contribute to better farmer learning through improved agriculture education focused on farmer’s preferred learning methods.

Collaborators: